The New New Deal (73 page)

239
McCain scoffed that Obama would need more than three Republicans:
John McCain on
Face the Nation
, CBS, February 8, 2009.

240
“I am
so
happy bipartisanship is important”: Saturday Night Live, NBC
, February 7, 2009,
http://www.hulu.com/watch/56638/saturday-night-live-pelosireid-open
.

241
Obama had written about the pathologies of modern Washington:
Obama,
The Audacity of Hope
, p. 64.

242
Obama mused that he probably should have pretended:
Obama press conference, February 9, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85728
.

11. Done Deal

243
Rahm delivered a White House list:
A ten-page “Detail Table—Spending Components,” dated February 10, 2009, provided to the author. It adds up to $512.53 billion, not including tax cuts.

244
The Congressional Budget Office had priced:
CBO cost estimate, February 7, 2009,
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/20468
; CBO cost estimate for House-passed bill, January 30, 2009,
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/41758
.

245
Obama’s economists were clamoring:
The December 20 transition memo on the meetings with Democratic staffers had flagged the AMT as a potential problem, noting their “strong desire” to include it. “Unless the Recovery bill’s topline total was adjusted to reflect the inclusion of AMT it would effectively shrink the stimulus resulting from the bill,” the memo warned. That’s exactly what happened.

246
an independent watchdog had concluded:
“Audit Report: Rural Utilities Service Broadband Grant and Loan Programs,” USDA Office of Inspector General, September 2005,
http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/09601-04-TE.pdf
.

247
The final spat on the Senate side:
Lizza was the first to write about this encounter in his Rahm profile: “The Gatekeeper,”
The New Yorker
, March 2, 2009,
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/02/090302fa_fact_lizza
.

248
“They give me three aces”:
David Rogers, “Senate Passes $787 Billion Stimulus Bill,”
Politico
, February 13, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18837.html
.

249
The president visited a Caterpillar plant:
Obama speech, East Peoria, Illinois, February 12, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85762
.

250
the company’s CEO told reporters:
Jake Tapper, “D’oh! Caterpillar CEO Contradicts President on Whether Stimulus Will Allow Him to Re-Hire Laid Off Workers,”
ABC News, February 12, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/02/doh-caterpillar/
.

251
In fact, Gregg’s
Wall Street Journal
op-ed in January:
Judd Gregg, “How to Make Sure the Stimulus Works,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 5, 2009.

252
“Mr. Obama’s victory feels more than a bit like defeat”:
Paul Krugman, “Failure to Rise,”
New York Times
, February 13, 2009.

253
It was about the size:
Florida’s output in 2009 was $737 billion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The Netherlands’ 2009 GDP was $683 billion, according to the CIA
World Factbook
. The Pentagon’s 2009 budget was $513 billion, and non-defense discretionary spending in 2009 was $586 billion.

254
far more aggressive as a percentage of GDP:
The Recovery Act’s cost peaked in 2010 at 2.8 percent of GDP. (It added $405 billion to the deficit, when GDP was $14.65 trillion.) The New Deal’s largest one-year cost was 1.5 percent of GDP in 1936, according to Romer’s analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Romer, “Back from the Brink,”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/Back_from_the_Brink2.pdf
. The Recovery Act’s cost was equal to 1.3 percent of GDP in 2009 and one percent of GDP in 2011, according to annual CBO budget outlook reports.

255
It dwarfed the stimulus packages:
“Navigating the Fiscal Challenges Ahead,” International Monetary Fund, May 14, 2010,
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fm/2010/fm1001.pdf
. Eswar Prasad and Isaac Sorkin, “Assessing the G-20 Economic Stimulus Plans: A Deeper Look,” Brookings Institution, April 2009,
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/articles/2009/03_g20_stimulus_prasad/03_g20_stimulus_prasad.pdf
.

256
“Stimulus for Planes, Trains, but Mostly Automobiles”:
iWatchNews, January 15, 2009,
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2009/01/15/2973/stimulus-planes-trains-mostly-automobiles
.

257
“We’ll put people to work building wind turbines”:
Obama speech, East Peoria, Illinois, February 12, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85762
.

258
The White House also helped Cantor out:
The White House projected that Cao’s district would see a boost of 4,800 jobs, far less than the 7,000 to 8,000 jobs that other districts would get. The White House said its jobs estimates were based largely on population, and that the number for New Orleans reflected the loss in population due to Hurricane Katrina. Bruce Alpert, “Job Creation, Retention Benefit from Stimulus Bill Expected to Be Lowest in 2nd District,”
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, February 18, 2009.

259
the Republicans were joined in opposition:
The House vote on the conference report is here:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll070.xml
. The Senate vote is here:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00064
.

260
“They are in essence betting against the president”:
Adam Nagourney, “A Leader in the Senate Sees Sunny Skies for Democrats,”
New York Times
, February 17, 2009.

261
Obama was about to sign the Recovery Act into law:
Obama remarks, Denver, Colorado, February 17, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85781
.

262
“My gut tells me it’s too soon”: Saturday Night Live
, NBC, February 14, 2009,
http://www.hulu.com/watch
.

12. Ready or Not

263
Vice President Biden also took a road trip:
“Vice President Joe Biden Visits Cumberland County,”
The Patriot-News
, February 11, 2009; Michael Phillips, “Shovels Are There, but the Readiness May Not Be,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 17, 2009.

264
“The first principle of politics”:
Joe Biden,
Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics
(New York: Random House, 2007) pp. xi–xxiii.

265
“If we do everything right”:
Jake Tapper, “Oh, That Joe! (No. 47 in a Series)—The Veep Lays Out the Odds,” ABC News, February 10, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/02/oh-that-joe-no-7/
.

266
priceless portraits of former vice presidents:
They happen to be the portraits on the covers of David McCullough’s Adams biography and Joseph Ellis’s Jefferson biography. It’s a nice office.

267
He’d also block 260 Recovery Act projects:
Michael Grunwald, “It’s Official: The Stimulus Isn’t a Waste of Money,”
Time
, October 1, 2010,
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2022781,00.html
.

268
“All of you are on the front lines”:
Obama remarks at Recovery Act implementation conference, March 13, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85855
.

269
Outside experts had warned that 5 percent of the stimulus:
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that U.S. organizations lose 5 percent to 7 percent of their revenues to fraud. Michael Cooper, “On the Lookout for Stimulus Fraud,”
New York Times
, September 17, 2009.

270
only $7.2 million in losses:
“2010 Fiscal Year End Report to the President on Progress Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” the White House, September 2010,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/recovery_act_report_9-30-2010.PDF
.

271
An obscure Commerce Department agency:
That was the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The Federal Railroad Administration ran high-speed rail.

272
Only two of his fifteen cabinet departments:
Peter Baker, “Obama Team Has Billions to Spend, but Few Ready to Do It,”
New York Times
, February 17, 2009.

273
Peter Orszag’s sixty-two-page single-spaced implementation memo:
Peter Orszag, “Initial Implementing Guidance for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” Office of Management and Budget, February 19, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_fy2009/m09-10.pdf
.

274
he read a report chronicling the department’s history of dysfunction:
“Management Challenges at the Department of Energy,” DOE Office of Inspector General, December 2008,
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/igprod/documents/IG-0808_%282%29.pdf
.

275
$1 billion from elite investors:
Michael Grunwald, “Big Name Investors Behind Obama’s Failed Green Tech Bet First in Line to Recoup Losses,” Swampland blog,
Time
, September 3, 2011,
http://swampland.time.com/2011/09/03/big-name-investors-to-recoup-losses-before-taxpayers-in-obamas-failed-green-tech-bet/
. A list of Solyndra’s investors was provided to the author.

276
The Bush administration had embraced Solyndra:
Michael Grunwald, “Solyndra Hypocrisy: David Vitter Sought Energy Loans He Now Seeks to Scrutinize,” Swampland blog,
Time
, September 19, 2011,
http://swampland.time.com/2011/09/19/solyndra-hypocrisy-david-vitter-sought-energy-loans-he-now-seeks-to-scrutinize/
.

277
Obama invited stimulus skeptics to visit Ohio:
Obama speech, Columbus, Ohio, March 6, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85826
.

278
“It certainly doesn’t feel like we’ve accomplished anything, but we have”:
Christina D. Romer, “The Case for Fiscal Stimulus: The Likely Effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” Speech to the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum, February 27, 2009,
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~cromer/The_likely_effects_of_the_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_act.pdf
.

13. Tea Leaves

279
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s response:
Jindal’s response to Obama’s address to Congress, February 24, 2009,
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-24/politics/sotn.jindal.transcript_1_gop-response-bobby-jindal-americans?_s=PM:POLITICS
.

280
“We can’t be the antigovernment party”:
Michael Grunwald, “The Republicans in Distress,”
Time
, May 7, 2009,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1896736,00.html
.

281
“a very narrow party of angry people”:
Zvika Krieger, “Huntsman, Interrupted,”
The New Republic
, May 20, 2009.

282
a CNBC commentator named Rick Santelli:
“Rick Santelli’s Shout Heard ’Round the World,” CNBC, February 22, 2009,
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29283701/Rick_Santelli_s_Shout_Heard_Round_the_World
.

283
“The real nerve struck”:
“Rick Santelli: I Want to Set the Record Straight,” CNBC, March 2, 2009,
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29471026/Rick_Santelli_I_Want_to_Set_the_Record_Straight
.

284
scores of Republicans who had opposed and denounced the stimulus:
Gotcha journalism isn’t necessarily partisan; reporters liked going after Republican hypocrites. John Solomon and Aaron Mehta, “Legislators Who Criticized Stimulus Sought Its Funding,”
Washington Post
, October 18, 2010; Louise Radnofsky, “Democrats Target Stimulus Critics Who Sought Funds,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 16, 2010; Jim McElhatton, “Stimulus Foes See Value in Seeking Cash,”
Washington Times
, February 9, 2010; Tyler Whitley, “Cantor Criticizes Stimulus Package, Suggests Alterations,”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
, July 7, 2009. The author has copies of scores of congressional letters seeking energy and transportation funds.

285
“We lost that legislative battle, but we won the argument”:
Andy Barr, “Pence: GOP Won Stimulus Argument,”
Politico
, February 27, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19375.html
.

286
“Asked About Stimulus, Tedisco Talks a Lot”:
Jimmy Vielkind,
New York Observer
, February 16, 2009.

287
Washington Republicans suggested they would stop bankrolling his campaign:
Bazile wrote an odd book about the Murphy-Tedisco race: Dan Bazile,
Too Close to Call
(Albany: ZLS, 2010).

288
“Tedisco’s victory will be a repudiation”:
Michael Steele, “It’s the Spending, Mr. President,”
Politico
, April 1, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20764.html
.